Women’s basketball drops a pair on Arizona road trip

The road losing streak continues for the USC women’s basketball team, which went 0-2 over the weekend against No. 18 Arizona State and No. 16 Arizona. The Trojans fell one point short in a triple-overtime thriller against the Sun Devils with a final score of 76-75 and could never fully recover from a 10-point deficit to Arizona in a 73-57 loss.

The last time the women’s basketball team won away from Galen Center was back in November at the South Point Shootout. The Trojans have since gone 0-5 in away conference games. USC is now 11-10 overall on the season and 3-7 in the Pac-12. 

In Friday’s game against ASU, the Trojans fought back from a 12-point deficit to reach a back-and-forth final quarter battle that ended in a 51-51 tie. A notable defensive adjustment at the half and a cleaner offense helped spur the comeback as the team held the Sun Devils’ shooting under 33% and cut their 28 first-half turnovers to just six for the rest of regulation. 

Throughout the overtime periods, neither team saw more than a 4-point advantage, making for a nail-biting 15 minutes of play. Freshmen standouts guard Endyia Rogers and forward Alissa Pili — the past three Pac-12 Freshman of the Week award winners — stepped up by draining two 3-pointers each and fighting for key rebounds after sophomore point guard Desiree Caldwell fouled out in the first overtime period. 

Rogers posted her first 30-point performance as a Trojan and continued her three-game streak of beating her previous points record. Pili followed with another personal-record-breaking performance, contributing a career-best three blocks and four steals. 

It was ASU’s sharpshooting that would nab it a 1-point lead to seal the deal with just two seconds remaining. Senior guard Reili Richardson hit the game-winning 3-pointer off an offensive rebound and an assist by senior forward Jamie Rudan. 

Despite the tough loss, senior forward Kayla Overbeck said the team still had a lot of positives to take away from the game.

“It’s really a sucky feeling, obviously, having to end the game the way that it ended,” Overbeck said. “That’s not the result that we wanted, but it showed us that we have so much fight and this is the third time we’ve gone to an overtime game, sixth overall, and it just shows that we’re never gonna give up.”

On Sunday, USC got down by 10 points to the Wildcats by the end of the first quarter, but unlike the previous game against ASU, Arizona didn’t allow the Trojans to fight back and even things up. The Wildcats outpaced the Trojans off of fast breaks and turnovers and dominated in the paint, never allowing USC to come closer than 3 points near the end of the second quarter.

The game was solidified in the fourth with Arizona shooting 62% from the field. A 3-pointer by junior guard Aari McDonald boosted the Wildcats’ lead to a comfortable 13 points with five minutes left — a lead that would only grow as time wound down. 

McDonald led the Wildcats’ offense with 20 points while sophomore forward Cate Reese shut down USC’s offense by logging 13 defensive rebounds — 17 boards overall. 

Rogers took a step back this game on her offensive production, finishing with only 7 points. Pili continued her strong play, though, leading the team with 21 points and adding five rebounds en route to winning her second Pac-12 Freshman of the Week in three weeks. Graduate guard Aliyah Jeune logged five rebounds of her own and added a team-high three assists out of just nine overall for the team. 

“These are two quality teams that we played — two top-20 teams and Arizona might even be a top-10 team, so I’m proud of the kids,” head coach Mark Trakh said. “They worked hard and they competed and we’re only gonna get better.”

USC will have to turn around and hit the road again within a week to face two conference opponents: Cal and No. 6 Stanford. This will be the team’s first meeting with both in-state rivals.